I’m writing this article because Mark5 wrote in asking, “What is the Tea Party?” I normally would never write about politic’s, but I stated I would answer any question posed to me. I’ll do my best to provide the most accurate information possible. So, here we go.

The whole concept for the name ‘Tea Party’, is based off of the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was a protest by colonists against taxes imposed on them by the British government. The colonist’s demanded representation in the British Parliament in exchange for paying taxes.

The Tea Party supporters, don’t believe they are being represented by the U.S. Government as well. Hence, they have set up a series of rally’s to protest the government.

The ‘TEA’ in Tea Party has been used as an acronym standing for Taxed Enough Already. This term was supposedly coined in a speech given by Ron Paul, during his Presidential primary campaign run. If your tired of reading watch the video instead.

The Tea Party on the Web

From my research there seem’s to be two separate Tea Party group’s. One was started online at numerous web site’s. Most notably market-ticker.org and fedupusa.org. This first group rallied against:

The Bank Bailout’s

The Rising U.S. Debt Level

Fraud and Corruption in the Financial Sector

The website Fedupusa.org lately has become more focused on Libertarian value’s. They state that they are non-partisan, but if you read the article’s on the site, they obviously back the Libertarian party. They have hid the name or organization that runs the site, so I was unable to gain any more information on them.

The Tea Party Rally’s

This first group really started to gain traction in the early part of 2009. Someone had the bright idea that citizen’s should send tea bag’s to politician’s to show that they weren’t satisfied with the government. This was a great idea because it was an inexpensive way to show disapproval.

Around the same time Freedom Works, a corporate activist group, contacted activist Mary Rakovich to get her to organize a protest of the stimulus bill (Feb 10th, 2009).

Leaders within the Tea Party credit Seattle blogger and conservative activist Keli Carender with organizing the first Tea Party in February 2009. She also was trained by Freedom Works.

I could go on and on explaining who did what at what rally, but I’ll instead explain who runs the Tea Party and what the Tea Party’s political mission is.

What is the Tea Party

The Tea Party, in my opinion is a rebranded version of the Libertarian party. The Libertarian party first tried to gain public support by abdicating the legalization of all drug’s. That didn’t work, so they are now calling themselves the Tea Party and are stating they are for freedom.

Here is my proof that the Tea Party is the Libertarian party:

Libertarian corporate activist group’s are funding most of the large rallies.

The main activist group is named FreedomWorks, a Libertarian Activist Group.

FreedomWorks, was created by David & Charles Koch (Combined worth of $35 Billion)

David Koch ran as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for vice president in 1980

For a time DLA Piper, the largest corporate lobbyist firm in the world, was involved with the Tea Party, but I’m not certain that they still are?

Dick Armey, a former congressman and executive with DLA Piper, runs FreedomWorks.

FreedomWorks core political goal’s are exactly the same as the Libertarian party

What are the Tea Parties Political Goals

This is right from the FreedomWorks website. I’ll go through each goal and explain what they mean to you.

Pass the Flat Tax Nationwide

Currently in the United States, the citizen’s pay a different rate depending on the amount of income they earn. The Tea Party wants to change this into a flat 23% (avg. percent being debated) tax on everyone. Most Libertarian group’s prefer that this tax be charged when any good’s of any kind are purchased.

So, everyone would pay the same amount under this proposal, except for corporation’s. These group’s state it would be unfair for them to pay, because it would create a system in which good’s would be taxed multiple times.

For example:

The farmer sells a tomato to a middle man (Tax)

The middle man sells the tomato to a grocery store (Tax)

The grocery store sells it to you (Tax)

The corporation’s prefer that you only will pay the tax.

Who would this benefit? Wealthy people obviously! If you like the idea of paying more tax’s, while corporation’s pay none, please comment below.

(1862 – 1913): Income tax was created and changed multiple time’s. The rate started at 3% and increased based off of income.

1935: Franklin Roosevelt raised the tax rate to 91%, for people making more than $4 million (today’s dollar’s)

1982: Ronald Reagan dropped the rate from 91% to 27%. Corporate taxes went from representing 33% of all federal tax’s to 9%. Reagan doubled the tax paid by citizen’s earning less than $40,000 per year.

If they eliminate all corporate tax’s who will have to make up the difference? I could go on and on about the flat tax, but I’ll stop there.

The return of the market from 1897 thru 1980 is but 3.73%, which is approximately the average rate of inflation.

We all know that social security is broken, but I don’t believe turning it into a 401k is going to work. I would go so far as to say, do away with it all together first.

Pass Tort Reform

Many people think Tort Reform is being called for to protect doctor’s from lawyer’s. Nope. If Tort Reform is passed insofar as FreedomWorks wants it to be. It will be almost impossible for a citizen to sue a corporation. Yeah Freedom!!!

I’ll leave it at that.

Eliminate all Tariffs on Foreign Imports

Just like our founding father’s would like right? ‘Nuff said!

Eliminate Welfare

They don’t want to flush out those who are taking advantage of the system, they want to end the concept of welfare and disability altogether. FreedomWorks believe’s that pretty much everything in this country should be run by corporation’s and that nearly every regulation should be eliminated.

Eliminate Net Neutrality Law’s

You might of heard about Net Neutrality, but I’ll explain why it’s elimination could be the worst act FreedomWorks is abdicating. Right now, everyone has the freedom, theres that word again! Everyone has the freedom to:

Pay an equal amount to host a website. (Pretty Much)

Pay an equal amount to visit any website they want. (Pretty Much)

Everyone on the internet is on neutral ground, or equal. If this neutrality is eliminated, the cable companies would be able to charge more depending on how much time you spend on the internet.

But, even worse, they will be able to charge more for quick page load’s. Here is an example:

If the Wall Street Journal paid more than any other newspaper, their pages would load the fastest

If little old me couldn’t afford to pay ton’s of money, my page might take a minute to load in comparison.

Who would wait around a minute to read my website? Not many, I’m sorry to say. This act if passed, would silence the opposition to corporate America. Yeah Freedom!

So, What is the Tea Party

It’s mainly 2 men:

David & Charles Koch the 24th and 25th wealthiest people in the world ($35 Billion combined worth).

Most of the multinational corporation’s from around the world.

Libertarian Activist Groups

And, many good people, who really want to fix things, but have been mislead.

Thank you Mark5, for asking the question. If you have any nonpolitical question’s you would like me to look up, post a comment below.

I tried to be as honest as possible about the Tea Party subject. If you think I made a mistake somewhere in the article please point it out.

Since I wrote this article Freedomworks has admitted numerous times that they coordinate many of the activities of the Tea Party. Even though at the time the mainstream media wasn’t reporting it, it is well known that the Koch brothers are behind the funding of the Tea party.

I provided a list of political goals directly from Freedomworks website. Those goals are identical to the goals of the libertarian party. The Koch brothers are also libertarians.

Yes, I pronounced the name wrong. Sorry about that. I created this way before the popular media started talking about the Koch brothers. As you can tell I don’t often talk about politics. I personally don’t care for any politician or political party.

I’m all for capitalism. I am however against Crony capitalism. I don’t think success should depend on who you know in government. I just want to have the same opportunity to succeed as everyone else.

Show me a politician that will eliminate lobbying and donations from PACs, unions, corporations, etc. and I’ll vote for them 🙂 Chances are very good most Americans agree on that point

One problem with your article is that there is no THE TEA Party. There were, at one count, over 2,000 of them. That has been both a strength and a weakness with the movement. The strength is that no one has been able to take over the leadership and corrupt it, even though the media has tried it’s best to define us. The weakness is that our political opponents are very well funded by billionaires like George Soros and are very well organized.

There is a lot of misinformation in the left-leaning media and Internet sites. In fact, almost everthing they write is misinformation, dismissive, and derogatory.

For example, our local TEA Part is funded entirely by passing a bucket around at our meetings and through a few small amount donations at special events. Most of the money collected is used to purchase pocket Constitutions and other hand-outs, paper and printer ink, and to rent table space at events. We pay for all expenses entirely out-of-pocket. If someone can’t afford the fare, they can’t go. There are no unions or political organizations providing buses or meals or signs or anything else.

Our primary function is to try to stay informed on proposed legislation, treaties, and such, to inform other people as to what is going on, and to get them involved in protecting their interests. Most people are busy earning a living and raising families and get their education from TV. Of course, America has no real news channels, just entertainment like the current popular trial and which celeberties have been arrested, so most people never find out much detail about what the federal and state governments and UN are really up to.

We invite candidates from both parties to speak, but endorse none as an organization; however, our members are free to support any candidates they want without criticism from our TEA Party.

We certainly are not Libertarians. We are not part of the Republican Party either, regardless of what the media says. We believe that the federal government should be limited and frugal and should abide by the original intent of the Constitution, as defined by the founders in the founding documents. We oppose encroachments on state’s rights and federal yielding of power to international organizations like the UN. Both of our political parties continue to sell us out in these areas.

When I’m asked about my political alignment, I say that politically I am an American, meaning that I believe the same things that our founding fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington, believed.

We “fight” by calling and writing our congressmen and holding rallies and special events, not by occupying, vandalizing, or threatening. In all of the thousands of TEA Party events that have ever been held all over the country, I have only heard of two people being arrested. And they were crashers, not participants. Also, when we hold an event, we make it a point to leave the premises cleaner than when we arrived.

During one event a couple of college students asked me why we do this. I explained, “We’re doing it for your future because they have already spent all of our money”. They had no idea of what I was talking about and weren’t curious enough to learn more. That is really sad. But, it demonstrates a lot of what is fundamentally wrong.

I definitely need to point out that I made this forever ago. I now don’t believe that some of what I have said here is true ( Things Change ). This was a description of the hijacked Tea Party. ( I made this WAY before anyone even knew who the Koch brothers were. )

I believe there are great people in each political party. I don’t consider myself to be part of any of them. What I believe should be done will never be done.

I don’t know if you read anything I wrote about income inequality or not? I also wrote that way before it became a popular topic in the media. I think it is a problem, but I never thought an alternative was to just give people money, which is what that movements solution was.

I would guess that we believe in many of the same things. I personally believe that anyone should be able to survive with a good education and then little else from the government for the rest of their lives. The government can’t / won’t provide that because of numerous issues which I’m sure you are aware.

I don’t believe I have any real solutions. Thankfully I was able to get a good education for myself. Hopefully I can provide a free education to anyone that is willing to work to achieve it.

Thank you for giving me insight into your beliefs. I greatly appreciate them 🙂

Thanks for the reply, Derek. I have been thoroughly enjoying your web site the last few days and intend to go through some of your programming courses.

You struck me as a kind of guy who bases his opinions on facts and, since we have such a hard time getting accurate information through the media filter, I thought that you might be interested in some insight into one of the more than 2,000 TEA Parties.

When I read your article on NLP, where you told how you rated yourself on the different catagories, you and I rated almost identical. The difference is that your knowledge is up-to-date and I was a computer geek before they invented the word, … before the Intel 4004, … before ICs, … back when computers took up a whole room, with blinking lights and big spinning magnetic tapes, … when 4Kbytes of magnetic core memory and a 4Mbyte disk or drum was huge. Now my $8 watch has more processing power.

The last systems that I maintained were programmed in Ada, C, FORTRAN, and macro-assembler, with a smattering of PLC ladder logic, etc. So, at the tender age of 71 and half a century of experience in electronic systems and computer programming, I am obsolete and unemployable. Thankfully, we still have retirement for a little while longer.

A while back I saw on TV that there is a shortage of technically qualified people and jobs going unfilled. So I decided that maybe I could help out in some way. Maybe I could help the country and make a few extra bucks to boot. I did a job search for “software engineer” in the Huntsville, AL area and got over 700 hits, almost entirely in Java and web development, which I had only played around with. Undeterred, I called a head-hunter in Huntsville and sent them my resume. Alas, the shortage was not desperate enough to hire a geriatric old fuddy-duddy.

Oh, you pointed out some interesting facts about taxes in your article. Look at Thomas Jefferson’s second inaugural address for some great insite into what they were able to accomplish and how they ran a frugal government financed primarily on import taxes. Things that included buying the whole middle portion of the continent from Napolean and freeing sailors who had been enslaved by the Barbary Pirates. Import taxes continued to be a major source of revenue until the sixteenth amendment, after which they shifted almost the entire burden of government onto individual income and corporate taxes. I have had some interesting debates with “free-market” supporters.

Again, I really like what you are doing with this web site. Thanks a lot.

I remember the assembly language days very well. I actually used punch cards. I think everyone thinks I’m younger then I am. I actually learned how to type on a typewriter in high school 🙂

Yes, I try to be open minded about everyones opinions. Like a said before, even if you have the best of intentions in supplying information that information can easily be used to support ridiculous ideas. I seem to be in the minority in that if I comment on political sites I receive comments that call me both a rightwing wacko and a commie liberal.

I applaud the fact that you are still educating yourself. I hope I do the same in the future. One of the major issues in this country is that kids aren’t taught skills that directly translate into money. There also seems to be this general feeling that hard work doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t know how many times I have heard a young person say that the phrase, “If you work hard you’ll be successful” isn’t true anymore. That is sad. I see opportunities every day that were impossible just 5 years ago.

Just 3 months ago I was hired to turn a company around. The company mainly supplied government institutions, universities and schools. Sales were absolutely terrible. The owner was going to have to close the doors and fire everyone after being in business for 47 years. I wasn’t able to tell the employees this of course, but they all saw me as a guy that was going to replace their jobs with a computer. They fought me every step of the way.

After 3 months thanks to the amazing tools available for free online, I was able to find the products they should be selling. With a little time on the phone with new suppliers (I had to call over 60 of them) we saved a ton of money. We lowered our prices, cut inventory, switched to offering only high margin products and the company was saved. Everyones job was saved and 3 additional people were hired.

Everything I have seen has proved that “If you work hard you’ll be successful” is still true. Maybe the phrase needs to be changed to “If you work hard and smart you’ll be successful”, but either way I wish people still believed that.

I’m always looking towards the past for new ideas. Thank you for pointing out the information on Jefferson.